Install Windows 2003 as VM on ESXi4

Here is our very first ITcookbook published recipe. It's very basic, something many of you have done dozens of times: install Windows Server. This 5 minute, 15 second video covers all of the actions you'd take during the approximately 20 minutes of a basic Windows Server installation. The video has no sound, but does have captions. The captions and their timestamps are reproduced below so you can quickly zoom to any part of the video you need to see.

Ingredients:

  • An installed ESXi server (ESXi4 is shown here).
  • A properly installed copy of the vSphere client.
  • A Windows Server 2003 ISO image, mounted in an attached ESXi datastore
    • I used the 64bit Standard edition, though the installation will be the same for any other version.
    • It is also possible to install directly from the CD/DVD; you'd take slightly different actions at 0:59 - 1:39
  • About 20 minutes of time.
  • Note: You can substitute a live server for the ESXi installation shown here. So you’d need any machine capable of running Win2003, and the Win2003 install CD. Then simply just skip past the ESXi provisioning sequence, and boot from your CD instead.

Instructions:

    •  green-down-arrow_thumb[8]  Notice the timestamps!
        • To see any step, move the video slider to that timestamp.
        • You can pause there or watch video.
        • Go fullscreen for greater detail; remove captions if they obscure something.
  • Opening notes
    • 0:00 In this video I will install Windows 2003 (Standard Edition, 64bit) on VMware's ESXi 4.
    • 0:10 Note the clock in upper lefthand corner shows realtime how long this operation takes. However, I paused recording several times to skip past boring, automated bits. ALL user input was captured to video, though (unless otherwise noted).
  • ESXi provisioning (discussion)
    • 0:14 Rightclick the resource group (or the host at root of tree, if you have no resource groups) and select New Virtual Machine.
    • 0:19 At "Configuration," choose Typical.
    • 0:22 At "Name and Location," type the name of the VM.
    • 0:36 At "Datastore," select the datastore. Here I am choosing the locally attached datastore.
    • 0:39 At "Guest Operating System," select the OS to be installed.
    • 0:46 At "Create a Disk," set the virtual disk size. I am creating a 30GB Thin Provisioned disk.
    • 0:52 At "Ready to Complete," place a checkmark next to "Edit the virtual machine settings" and click the Finish button.
    • 0:59 In "Virtual Machine Properties" click the CD/DVD device. Choose "Datastore ISO file" and select the proper file. Here I have a pre-mounted collection of ISOs as an NFS datastore. I select the Win2003 Standard 64bit ISO.
    • 1:31 Don't forget to set the ISO to "Connect at power on" - this will allow the VM to boot from our ISO. Click Finish.
    • 1:39 Ready to boot and build the VM. Select it, and click the Console tab.
    • 1:46 Rightclick the new VM and choose "Power On." Once it starts to boot, click anywhere inside the console window.
  • Windows installation sequence - pre-GUI (discussion)
    • 2:17 I have skipped past about 30 seconds of file loading.
    • 2:20 Press ENTER to start the setup process.
    • 2:22 Press F8 to accept the license.
    • 2:26 Press ENTER to allow Windows to use the entire unpartitioned space as a single partition.
    • 2:29 Choose the NTFS (Quick) format option and press ENTER.
    • 2:35 The system now reboots.
  • Windows installation sequence - GUI (discussion)
    • 3:20 I have skipped past about 2 minutes of nothing happening. Now we get to the user input part of setup.
    • 3:26 I left "Regional and Language Options" at default because they are correct for me.
    • 3:33 At "Personalize Your Software," type your name and organization.
    • 3:43 At "Your Product Key," you must enter a valid product key. I paused recording while I entered mine, so you will not see that user input take place.
    • 3:50 At "Licensing Modes," you must select a mode. Here I choose the default, "Per Server" and 5 concurrent connections. A discussion of the pros and cons of each licensing model is out of scope for this video.
    • 3:54 At "Computer Name and Administrator Password" I fill in the values. I purposely chose a weak password so you'd see the dialog that pops up when you do so.
    • 4:12 At "Date and Time Settings" I left things at defaults; they are fine for my purposes.
    • 4:17 I have skipped past about 1 minute where nothing happens; the system is installing.
    • 4:22 At "Networking Settings," I left it at "Typical settings," which means the system will obtain network settings via DHCP. If changes are needed, they can be made post-install.
    • 4:26 At "Workgroup or Computer Domain" I left it in the default WORKGROUP. Again, if changes are needed they can be made post-install.
    • 4:29 I have skipped past about 9 minutes of nothing happening - the system was installing. Now it reboots (without user intervention).
  • Completion